Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 3)
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- Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 3)
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Editorial
JUNE 1967 AND JUNE 1988
Every year June Sth is an occasion for Palestinian and Arab
progressives to reevaluate the reasons for the Arab defeat in
the 1967 war launched by the Zionist state, which resulted in
the occupation of the rest of Palestine. A major lesson drawn
by revolutionaries is that classical warfare cannot stand up to
Zionist military superiority which is constantly being bolstered
by imperialist support. Only a popular liberation war can do
so, by mobilizing the full potentials of the masses in a variety
of struggle forms.
This year, 21 years after the occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, this lesson is not being evaluated solely on the
basis of timeworn historical evidence. The Palestinian uprising
has put a whole new impetus into this discussion. Daily mass
struggle, unbroken for over half a year, has created new facts
which challenge the Zionist occupation as never before. As
noted by Israeli historian Shlomo Avineri in the New York
Times on February 24th: «In 1967 the Israeli Army needed
fewer than five days to gain control over the West Bank and
Gaza. In 1987 to 1988 the same army - much stronger - cannot
restore order when faced with stone-throwing turbulent youths.
A Greater Israel is not more secure but less secure for Israeli
Jews.»
On June 7, 1967, Rabin is reported to have queried: «How
do we control a million Arabs?» (International Herald
Tribune, June 10th). Today, as Defense Minister, Rabin is
daily confronted with the full implications of his question. His
prescribed remedy of systematic killing, beating, detention and
deportation has yet to stop the uprising. Instead, new atrocities
are daily being added to the Zionists’ ugly human rights
record: As of mid-June, 275 Palestinians had been murdered
by the Zionist forces since the uprising began. Thousands more
have been injured. Among the recent casualties was the
three-year-old boy who died in Gaza on May 27th, after his
home was tear-gassed as Zionist forces tried to quell
demonstrations. This was one of 40 deaths due to the Israelis’
vicious use of tear gas in closed areas. In the same week, two
nine-month-old baby girls suffered eye injuries from rubber
bullets shot at the people of Jabalia camp.
Despite all the sacrifices they have already borne, the
Palestinian masses of the West Bank and Gaza Strip marked 21
years of occupation with three days of general strike and
confrontation of Zionist troops, simultaneously protesting
Schultz’s fourth shuttle to the Middle East. The Zicnist
authorities are moreover faced with signs that the uprising is
spreading into «Israel» itself. This year’s annual May lst
demonstration in Nazareth was dedicated to the uprising.
Throughout the month of May, fires raged on forest and
pasture land reserved for exclusive Jewish use in the Galilee,
burning about 40,000 acres. Five Palestinians from the 1948
occupied land were subsequently arrested on suspicion of
arson. In the same period, the United National Leadership of
the Uprising had issued a call for «destroying and burning all
the enemies’ agricultural and industrial resources.» Fires have
also occurred in the occupied Golan Heights and the Jerusalern area.
The uprising has created new conditions in the Arab world,
which if developed could impact on the overall struggle. The
most recent result of the uprising’s impact was the position
adopted at the Arab summit in Algiers (see article in this issue).
Prior to that, it spurred the reconciliation between the PLO and
the Syrian leadership. For several years, efforts had been ex-
erted by Palestinian and Arab nationalists and their allies,
especially the Soviet Union, to facilitate such a reconciliation.
With the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, contacts in-
creased between the two sides, knowing that the upris-
ing marked a turning point in the Palestinian and Arab strug-
gle. After years of the Zionist state and its backer, the USA,
being on the offensive, the uprising opened the horizon for a
counteroffensive.
On this background, the martyrdom of Abu Jihad presented
the opportunity. A high-ranking Fatah delegation came to
Damascus for the funeral, and held talks with the Syrian
leadership. The subsequent visit of PLO Chairman and Fatah
leader, Yasir Arafat, and his April 25th meeting with Syrian
President Assad, made the reconciliation a reality. Differences
do remain (see Press Conference in this issue). However, the
two sides agreed on three basics: (1) confronting the US plans,
primarily the Schultz plan; (2) supporting the Palestinian
uprising; and (3) a joint position on a fully empowered inter-
national conference under UN auspices with the participation
of the five permanent members of the Security Council and of
the PLO on an equal and independent footing, with the aim of
fulfilling Palestinian rights to return, self-determination and
an independent state.
By holding to these points and working to resolve dif-
ferences, PLO-Syrian relations can be developed into the axis
for other tasks. One of these is the return of all Palestinian
organizations to the PLO. Another is restoration of the
Palestinian-Lebanese nationalist-Syrian alliance that was
previously on the forefront of the struggle against the US-
Zionist plans. This in turn could pave the way for reorganizing
the alliance between the Arab nationalist regimes. It would also
enhance coordination with international allies in the efforts to
convene a genuine international conference.
The Palestinians under occupation have shown the way to
reversing the 1967 defeat and subsequent decline in the Arab
position. The Arab nationalist and progressive forces should
seize this historic chance. The Arab national liberation move-
ment is called upon not only to support the uprising in
Palestine, but to mobilize the masses in each country, to
reverse the capitulationist trend that has pervaded the area.
Today we stand at the threshold of a new phase begun by the
restoration of the PLO’s unity, crystallized by the uprising and
furthered by the PLO-Syrian reconciliation and the Algiers
summit. All nationalist and progressive Palestinian and Arab
forces are called upon to struggle for enforcing radical change
in the balance of forces in the area. This is the prerequisite for
fulfilling the Palestinian people’s rights, and simultaneously
bringing democracy and progress to the Arab masses.
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